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Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm ל"צז: Memories and Reflections

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Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm ל Volume 24, Issue 28 Yeshiva University High School For Boys 4 Tamuz 5780 e Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy שמע קולנו ”יתגבר כארי לעמוד בבוקר לעבודת בוראו“ Special Edition :זצ"ל Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm Memories and Reflections Rabbi Mayer Schiller Author’s Note: On Sunday, June 7th, I delivered a hesped for Rabbi Lamm over Zoom. What follows is a transcript of that talk, edited and annotated. Yeoman’s work was done in the transcription and editing by Yisroel Hochman, Yeshurin Sorscher and Shimi Kaufman, MTA talmidim. The latter, in particular, invested much time, energy and insight into the process. I am very grateful to them for this and much else. Their interest in Torah and avodah has inspired me throughout the years. We tried to keep the flavor of the spoken words’ intimacy while tightening the presentation. It was not a simple task. The success of our hybridization remains for the reader to judge. Introduction The Slonimer sefer, Toras Avos, has a section called Klalei Emunas Chachamim. The first klal, from Rav Avraham Slonimer (1804 - 1883), begins with, “When Hashem places before you and singles out for you a man according to the yearnings of your heart, that person is one you should attach yourself to.”1 In a similar vein, the Zohar writes that when you find a man “who touches you spiritual- ly, you are obligated to attach yourself to him and learn from him.”2 Rabbi Lamm was, for me, that man. He was the man whom Hashem prepared for me, “according to the yearnings” of my heart. It is my hope in these pages to examine who this man was, his yesodos (basic beliefs) in avodas Hashem, his impact on me personally, and his relevance for future generations. We will begin with a brief biographical sketch of his life. Rabbi Lamm was born in 1927 in Williamsburg, Brookyln, before the community became the Chareidi stronghold it is today. His parents were hardworking Galitziana Yidden, who opted to send him to Yeshiva Torah Vodaath. (Torah Vodaath was quite different back then than it is today, often taking the talmidim to Ebbets Field and (alas) Yankee Stadium, and to first-run Broadway films, such as Shirley Temple’s Stowaway (1937). One is left to wonder how Rabbi Lamm, who had zero interest in sports and, probably, none in Shirley Temple movies, was able to get out of those trips, if he did.)3 After graduating, he spent a year learning with his zayde, Rav Yehoshua Baumol (1880 - 1948), a year which he described to me personally as “the sweetest year of his life.”4 In the evenings, he read “a good deal of philosophy and all of Freud, Jung, and Ad- 2 e ler.”5 After a year, his zayde, a Chasid- ishe rov who had served as the pre- World War I Vizhnitzer Rosh Yeshiva, told him that he should go to learn “bay dem Soloveitchik Gaon.” He listened, and left to attend Yeshiva College. He majored in chemistry, which remained a lifelong love of his. Upon graduating, he spent some time studying chemistry at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute6, until Dr. Belkin persuaded him to return to Yeshiva Rabbi Lamm (Left) with his Rav Hamuvhak, Rav and pursue semicha. After receiving his Yosha Ber Soloveitchik (The Rav) (Right) semicha, he became the assistant Rabbi Portrait of Rav Yehoshua Baumol to Rabbi Joseph Lookstein (1902 - 1979) in Kehilath Jeshurun, as well as teaching at its affiliate, the Ramaz School. He then continued on to serve as Rabbi Lamm’s grandfather pulpit Rabbi for the Kadimah Synagogue in Springfield, Massachusetts, the West Side Jewish Center, and the Jewish Center in the West Side (two different places), where he remained the Rav until becoming the president of Yeshiva University (YU) in 1976. In 1958 he served as the founder and first editor of Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought, a position he held until 1962.7 He also completed his PhD, a study of the derech (philosophy) of Rav Chaim Volozhiner as presented in his magnum opus, the Nefesh Hachaim. Rav Soloveitchik acted both as his PhD advisor and the person who gave him semicha, the only time this ever occurred. He served as President of YU from 1976 to 2003, and, then as Chancellor until 2013, whereupon he stepped down into a well-deserved retirement. Throughout the years he also authored eleven books and hundreds of articles, as well as delivering countless droshos, lectures, and shiurim. A bit of an autobiographical digression: I became Orthodox at age twelve, and my goal was to even- tually become a fully functioning Skverer Chossid, with all which that implied.8 As part of the pro- cess, I first attended Breuers’ (Yeshivas Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch) in ninth grade (1965), went on to Mesivta Beis Shraga of Monsey in eleventh grade (1967), and then finally on to the Skverer yeshiva (1969) at age 17. I got married there, and learned in the kollel for six years. This varied trek through assorted institutions is significant, as I came to understand early on that, within the world of Orthodoxy, there were different camps, each with slightly different apprehensions of Torah and reali- ty. The only way I was able to process this was to develop what I call the theory of primary and sec- ondary belief systems. The primary belief systems are those that all Torah Jews believe in. They are the Orthodox beliefs expressed by the Rambam in the Ikarei Emunah (Thirteen Principles of Faith), and the Orthoprax observances outlined by the Shulchan Aruch.9 The secondary belief systems are the derivative notions rooted in the guidance of leaders, logic, text, and/or social context, which re- sult in disagreement between the camps of Orthodoxy. This seemed to me a simple and basic truth: All Orthodox Jews agree on the basics, and argue on some of the non-essential issues. 10 Because of this view, when I was in Skver, I was often called upon -- rather, I called upon myself -- to defend those Orthodox thinkers and leaders who stood outside of the normative Chareidi world. This often focused on Rav Abraham Isaac Kook (1865 - 1935), who, in the heimishe velt, is viewed as anywhere from a rasha gamur to a silly man with silly beliefs.11 At the same time, I was also learning and working with many of the yeshiva’s weaker talmidim on a voluntary basis. A member of the Kehillah administration wanted to hire me to do this in an official capacity, but one of the other Roshei Kehillah felt I was unfit due to what he had heard of my de- fense of Rav Kook. Because of this controversy, both parties came to my house to interrogate me. The meeting went reasonably well, until the prosecuting Rosh Kehillah discovered a sefer by Necha- ma Leibowitz on Chumash, thus, effectively ending my chances of being hired. This is just one example of my feeling that, despite relishing the world of Skver, its box was just a bit 3 e too restrictive. In order to expand beyond these limitations, when I read any book on any subject, I would frequently call the author and have a conversation with him about his world-view. I must have called well over fifty authors, and almost all were incredibly gracious in talking with me.12 At that time, I would also occasionally venture to the Lower East Side, where there were an assortment of now-extinct seforim stores that had every sefer, book, and journal that you could imagine.13 On one of these trips, I picked up Rabbi Lamm’s Faith And Doubt. I began to read on the way home, and I immediately recognized, in the words of Joe Stromer (1952 - 2002), of the Clash, upon hearing punk rock for the first time at London’s 100 Club, that it was “a whole new thing, man, a whole new thing.” I was completely fascinated and taken by the book, and I spent a day reading through it and taking copious notes. I had a lot of questions immediately and, so, that night, I called Rabbi Lamm to see to what degree he could soothe my soul’s turbulence. At this point, I have to interweave my memories with what Mrs. Mindela Lamm recalled to me years later. Apparently, Rabbi Lamm and his wife were poised to go out that night, and had already donned their coats. As they were about to leave, I called and explained that I had a few questions for Rabbi Lamm. Mrs. Lamm told this to her husband, who said that he would simply explain to me that he was about to leave and give me a time to call back. I asked him my questions, and he began to become engaged with answering me. As Mrs. Lamm put it, “When my husband first sat down, I got nervous. When he began to slip off the left sleeve of his coat, I got really nervous. When he had taken his coat off fully, I realized we were not going to be going out that night.”14 That first conversa- tion lasted until well past midnight, about three plus hours. Many such conversations followed, and wherever I wanted to go in the world of hashkafa, he was both willing to and capable of meeting me there. Whatever I wished to discuss, from the nature of medrash to the morality of halacha he was ready to play, and with extensive knowledge of almost every topic. He invited me to come speak at a course he was teaching on Jewish philosophy at the Erna Michael (today: Isaac Bruer) College of Yeshiva University, and he introduced me as “my dear friend whom I have never met.” He encour- aged me to write my book, The Road Back, and edited the pages of my handwritten manuscript which I sent him weekly.
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